Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

linkedin.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 737 posts

Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#71

Post by hooverd »

darth_avocado wrote: post #56
Aurornis wrote: post #21

I have several friends on the administrative side at Universities. The two things you have to realize is that there are an incredible number of administrative staff at Universities and they're extremely territorial. You rocked someone's boat and they got upset. They have a lot of time on their hands because there are so, so many people in administration. Now they're coming after you like it's their job. I think you'r…

> They have a lot of time on their hands because there are so, so many people in administration. Not so polite take: most of them could be replaced by a 20 line shell script.

such as?

Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#72

Post by SteveNuts »

zcrossing wrote: post #59
dylan604 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't mention a lawyer casually. Just have the lawyer send a letter. Don't give them the option to call your bluff. People casually mention a lawyer so frequently it means nothing. Receiving a letter from an actual lawyer means everything.

[flagged]

The one time I mentioned getting a lawyer over a grievance with a car dealership, the customer service people immediately stopped talking to me and said all further communication goes through their lawyers.

Whoops

Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#73

Post by Brian_K_White »

jdkaim wrote: post #7

Update: I immediately took down my class project site after receiving yesterday’s ultimatum. I still don’t think the simple demo site violated the letter or spirit of the registration rules, but I took it down because I always want to operate in good faith. They followed up today to thank me for doing it, but also indicated that they were putting a hold on my account anyway. As a result, I am not going to be able to…

This new development is practically a gift.

The last thing in the world you want at this point is to be getting into any big fights obviously, but wow did they just give you about 3 legs to stand on.

Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#74

Post by prox »

jdkaim wrote: post #7

Update: I immediately took down my class project site after receiving yesterday’s ultimatum. I still don’t think the simple demo site violated the letter or spirit of the registration rules, but I took it down because I always want to operate in good faith. They followed up today to thank me for doing it, but also indicated that they were putting a hold on my account anyway. As a result, I am not going to be able to…

This does sound like extortion, please don’t get pushed over!

Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#75

Post by School-Cotton »

sneak wrote: post #67
jdkaim wrote: post #7

Update: I immediately took down my class project site after receiving yesterday’s ultimatum. I still don’t think the simple demo site violated the letter or spirit of the registration rules, but I took it down because I always want to operate in good faith. They followed up today to thank me for doing it, but also indicated that they were putting a hold on my account anyway. As a result, I am not going to be able to…

The way that the leadership will make it right in the end is VIA YOUR LAWYER. Without a lawyer they have no reason to do anything. You paid a lot to graduate, it is nothing short of foolish to squander that investment by forgoing legal representation while they try to extort you. Don’t have any more unrecorded conversations with them. They are playing hardball and you are pretending that everything is a-ok, when it c…

It seems reasonable to at least attempt to resolve the situation by emailing someone higher up than whichever random bureaucrat put a hold on his account before immediately jumping to hiring lawyers.

Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#76

Post by bombcar »

darth_avocado wrote: post #56
Aurornis wrote: post #21

I have several friends on the administrative side at Universities. The two things you have to realize is that there are an incredible number of administrative staff at Universities and they're extremely territorial. You rocked someone's boat and they got upset. They have a lot of time on their hands because there are so, so many people in administration. Now they're coming after you like it's their job. I think you'r…

> They have a lot of time on their hands because there are so, so many people in administration. Not so polite take: most of them could be replaced by a 20 line shell script.

Actually, they can't. Their job isn't to do whatever is on the description, their job is to give someone for their boss to have in his little fiefdom.

Lord of the Shell Scripts doesn't ring as fun as having 20 employees, even if the shell scripts do more.

Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#77

Post by hooverd »

jdkaim wrote: post #7

Update: I immediately took down my class project site after receiving yesterday’s ultimatum. I still don’t think the simple demo site violated the letter or spirit of the registration rules, but I took it down because I always want to operate in good faith. They followed up today to thank me for doing it, but also indicated that they were putting a hold on my account anyway. As a result, I am not going to be able to…

That's concerning. I can see why IT wouldn't be giving API keys to random students. Who on the uni side is doing this?

Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#78

Post by mandibles »

crystal_revenge wrote: post #42
Aurornis wrote: post #21

I have several friends on the administrative side at Universities. The two things you have to realize is that there are an incredible number of administrative staff at Universities and they're extremely territorial. You rocked someone's boat and they got upset. They have a lot of time on their hands because there are so, so many people in administration. Now they're coming after you like it's their job. I think you'r…

I've spent quite a bit of time in academia and was going to post something similar. Universities, no matter how great, are filled to the brim with petty bureaucrats just itching to exert whatever meager power they wield over someone whenever they get the chance. > So be loud, but polite. Fully agree. In academia problems don't get fixed until it's more annoying to not fix it. The more attention this gets the more lik…

The conflict is so intense because the stakes are so low.

Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#79

Post by dmitrygr »

Aurornis wrote: post #21

I have several friends on the administrative side at Universities. The two things you have to realize is that there are an incredible number of administrative staff at Universities and they're extremely territorial. You rocked someone's boat and they got upset. They have a lot of time on their hands because there are so, so many people in administration. Now they're coming after you like it's their job. I think you'r…

In USSR there was a common saying that "the lower the position, the pettier the bureaucrat"

Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#80

Post by timewizard »

Aurornis wrote: post #21

I have several friends on the administrative side at Universities. The two things you have to realize is that there are an incredible number of administrative staff at Universities and they're extremely territorial. You rocked someone's boat and they got upset. They have a lot of time on their hands because there are so, so many people in administration. Now they're coming after you like it's their job. I think you'r…

> have a lot of time on their hands because there are so, so many people in administration

It shouldn't be difficult to determine why education costs are so inflated, nor should it be difficult to see the obvious solution here.

Post reply on HN